Chipmakers vie to influence PDA marketNews & Analysis 11/5/2002 Post a commentCompetition in the handheld market continues to heat up, with Texas Instruments Inc. supplying the first non-Motorola processor for PDAs built by Palm Inc., and NeoMagic Corp. promising to bring a radical new processing architecture to 3G handsets next year.

Programming DSPs in High-Level LanguagesDesign How-To 11/5/2002 Post a commentTo make DSP software maintainable, reusable, and portable, you have to write the code in a high-level language, usual in C or a language based on C. This article from Associated Compiler Experts (ACE) suggests that the solution is to use one of several variants of the C language, along with advanced simulation tools and compilers.

A Beam Deflecting System For Holographic Storage Fast Data ReadingDesign How-To 11/5/2002 Post a commentIn this article, Renaud Kiefer and associates describe a compact addressing system for memory reading which combines micro-mirrors (or optical MEMS: microelectromechanical systems), acousto-optics, and gratings. MEMS are more convenient for this application than scanners such as galvanometric, oscillatory, or polygon mirrors due to the large mechanical deflection angles and high level of integration achievable with MEMS devices.

Combining hard code speed with software flexibilityDesign How-To 11/1/2002 Post a commentIn the design of our traffic management coprocessor, which uses OC-192 techniques to satisfy the requirements of the lower performance but multiservice OC-48 market, one of our key challenges was to provide both performance and flexibility to meet the wider range of needs of router and switch makers there.

Simplicity reigns in NPU programmingNews & Analysis 11/1/2002 Post a commentThe frequent changes to the communication standards and the growing demand for quality-of-service support has created the need for programmable networking devices that can replace traditional field-programmable gate arrays in implementing high bit-rate data-path networking functionality.

Net design needs standard modelsNews & Analysis 11/1/2002 Post a commentWhile most embedded-networking designers would agree on the intended benefits of network processors (NPs), there has been no such agreement on how they should be programmed.